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Cole Memo

Last updated: November 18, 2021

What Does Cole Memo Mean?

The Cole Memo was a memorandum written in 2013 by the US Attorney General at the time, James Cole. The memo urged all attorneys in the US to focus on specific aspects when it came to legalized marijuana operations within their states.

Specifically, attorneys were urged to focus mainly on preventing cannabis from getting in the hands of minors, and from the substance escalating gang activity.

Nowadays, some believe that current US Attorney General Jeff Sessions (as of 2017) wants to turn the Cole Memo into a tool to delegalize cannabis across the US.

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Maximum Yield Explains Cole Memo

The Cole Memo was written back in 2013, by then US Attorney General James Cole. It was issued after several states had legalized medical cannabis, and others were considering the legalization of recreational cannabis. Specifically, the memo detailed how attorneys within states that had legalized marijuana were to prioritize their activities in relation to cannabis use and distribution.

The Cole Memo stated that attorneys only had a handful of top priorities in regard to cannabis and its distribution. One of those was to keep it out of the hands of minors. Another was to prevent revenues from cannabis sale funding gang or criminal activity, and to prevent marijuana from being distributed into states where it was illegal.

It stated that legal activities could not be used to mask illegal ones, and attorneys were to prevent violence and firearms use from being part of cannabis culture. Finally, it dealt with drugged driving, growing cannabis on public land, and preventing cannabis possession and use on federal property.

Jeff Sessions, part of the Trump Administration, is currently seeking ways to delegalize the cannabis industry in the US, and there are rumors that the Cole Memo will be the key to doing that. Sessions will focus on the number of operations that do not adhere to the rules laid out in the memo, and use that as an excuse to recriminalize cannabis across the country.

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